2021 Volkswagen ID.4 Powertrain & Transmission Problems

I am reporting a safety-related failure involving my 2021 Volkswagen ID.4. The vehicle has experienced two separate incidents where it suddenly lost power while driving and became inoperable without warning. The first occurrence happened while I was in the middle of an intersection. The vehicle lost power and could not continue moving, creating a dangerous situation with surrounding traffic. The second occurrence occurred shortly after beginning a trip, approximately one thousand feet down the road. Again, the vehicle lost power without warning and became inoperable. In both cases, after the failure occurred, the vehicle would power on and could be shifted into drive or reverse; however, the vehicle would not move or provide any propulsion in either gear. The vehicle had to be manually pushed out of the roadway. The vehicle has been brought to the dealership multiple times over the course of ownership for issues involving the electrical and high-voltage systems. Service records show repeated diagnostic procedures, recall and campaign work, and repairs involving the battery system and related control functions. Diagnostic fault codes associated with this issue have included P0BEE00 and P0BE600 (drive motor current sensor circuit faults), along with communication-related faults. Despite these multiple service visits and repairs, the condition has not been reliably resolved, indicating an ongoing and intermittent system failure. Most recently, the dealer diagnosed a failure related to the drive motor system. The rear drive motor was replaced; however, after replacement, the vehicle still would not properly communicate with the motor. The dealer has since identified the issue as being related to the control module responsible for communication with the drive motor (gateway), which also requires replacement. The vehicle has been out of service for extended periods, including a current repair period exceeding one month. Given that the vehicle has lost propulsion without w

Vehicle is able to be shifted from park to drive or reverse without foot pressing brake pedal. On multiple occasions I have shifted from park to reverse and the vehicle has immediately started idling backwards.

Electrical system not working correctly. Powertrain maintenance needed. Vehicle randomly had a light come on the dash, and included the message about electrical systems. Vehicle lost power, when I tried to accelerate, it was accelerating extremely slow and finally was able to get to posted speed limit of 35 in 0.5 miles. Never had a light come on until now. Recently had the 10,000 mile safety check completed by the dealer.

After rain or snow, vehicle will not release from park even when shifted to drive. After pressing accelerator a few times vehicle will make a loud bang from the rear (loud enough to sound as though something is coming apart) and then start to move. This happens in warm and cold weather

Speedometer display went black for 15-10 seconds while the vehicle was in motion. Both the screen in front of the steering wheel and the infotainment screens went blank. The speedometer eventually came back. The other screen took much longer to recover.

Front electrical motor failed in a 3 year old vehicle with approx. 72,000 miles. A loud "pop" was observed, then the vehicle failed, stopped in the middle of the road, completely immobile. Vehicle has been looked at the by a VW authorized dealer, multiple systems failure has been identified.

The 12v battery powering the electrical system failed. This caused the vehicle to stop unexpectedly in the middle of a busy street worth traffic on either side of the vehicle. All attempts to restart the vehicle resulted in an error stating the electrical system has failed. The problem was reproduced at the dealership. The techs were unable to diagnose the errors. The manufacturer is sending a District Representative to investigate. The vehicle component was recalled in 2023 and replaced by the dealer to address this specific issue and risk. There were zero warning lights prior to the vehicle stalling. Once stalled, the vehicle was able to start, but unable to drive, and all dashboard warning lights activated.

When accelerating from stop the vehicle loses power. If the accelerator is depressed further the power does not return. However, when the accelerator is released then depressed again power returns. In our case this has happened seven (7) times. The occurrence is random and is not limited to a specific location. It has occurred on the interstate highway when approaching the traffic on an onramp as well as in town driving. On two (20 of the seven (7) occasions automobiles following have had to emergency brake to prevent a rear end collision. Losing power when merging into traffic on an interstate could pose significant safety hazards to oncoming traffic as well as the vehicle merging. The problem has been brought to the dealer's attention but they have not been able to reproduce it. It has not been inspected by police or insurance because accidents have been avoided. I have owned the car for 14 months and the occurrence is random.

Car displayed error while driving and immediately began to lose speed. Stopped in the middle of a 6 lane road with a posted speed limit of 35mph. Car would not go into drive. Turned car off and attempted to restart and put it back into drive, but did not work. Turned car off and waited 1 minute and tried again, turned car off a second time and waited 3 minutes. Car restarted with errors but was able to be put into drive and driven. The car was blocking a driving lane in the road for approximately five minutes with hazard lights on. If this has happened on a highway it would have been extremely dangerous.

My vehicle did exactly what the recall is about, the electrical system went into a dumb mode and the care could not be used for a while. It eventually reset and is working. Took to dealer and they said that is was good to go, but want to make sure my VIN is on the recall fix when ready

On Monday, December 19, 2022, at approximately 1:30 p.m., driving at 70 miles per hour, my Volkswagen W ID.4 car suddenly lost electric power and I was unable to accelerate. I was driving on Highway 680 South, near the Livorna exit, on the Livorna Zone Express Lanes when this occurred in Contra Costa County, California. The car's user interface panel flashed the message, "Electrical system not working correctly. Please service vehicle." From the second lane on a four-lane highway, with the remaining speed, as the car dramatically slowed, I coasted to the right shoulder and came to a complete stop. During this entire time, there was no power. This was extremely dangerous and stressful as I was concerned of highway speed traffic approaching from behind and being unable to reach the shoulder safely without any power. There, at the right shoulder, I turned on the hazard lights and called my husband. He told me to exit and reenter the car, as safely as possible, to try to restart the system. I exited the car from the passenger side. When I reentered the car, the system restarted and the electric power returned. The vehicle had power again and I was able to safely re-enter the freeway lanes. This same error "Electrical system not working correctly. Please service vehicle" occurred previously two times when the vehicle was not moving (i.e. when trying to start driving from a stop) in the last year and a half. For these 2 previous incidents, my husband had opened service requests for repairs under warranty to the VW dealer in Walnut Creek, CA and they confirmed the faults and serviced the vehicle by bleeding the coolant system each time. Both times they assured me this would resolve the problem. This is the first time the same problem recurred while the vehicle was in motion resulting in total loss of power and put me in a dangerous situation.

Driving on the highway and with no warning got an “error” message and a message that the electrical system was shutting down. Also popped up some reference about the 12 volt battery. Car went into a neutral type mode and started to slow due to complete loss of power. Luckily we were able to get to the emergency lane from the middle highway lane and coast to a stop. Extremely dangerous for a complete loss of power to occur with no warning. Car turned itself off while we were calling VW roadside assistance. It then was able to be turned back on and driven as normal. Based on VW id4 blogs, this is happening too often and dealerships are not able to determine it through diagnostics.

The contact owns a 2021 Volkswagen ID.4. The contact stated that after he parked and secured his vehicle to proceed into his residence, he later found out that the vehicle had unintendedly rolled backward out of the driveway. The contact stated that the vehicle did not crash into any objects. The contact stated that the vehicle stopped without driver assistance. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and an appointment was scheduled with a dealer. The approximate failure mileage was 4,000.

The car displays warnings such as "travel assist unavailable," "electrical system not working properly," "drive system error" and "please service vehicle. The warnings appear upon startup after entering the car, or when attempting to shift from park to drive, park to reverse, or reverse to drive. The warnings leave the car in "park" and it cannot be moved. When they appear, the driver must exit the car and leave it stationary in the parking lot or busy street where the errors occurred for up to 30 minutes before the car's electrical and drive systems will reset. After reset, the car may or may not have recovered and become drivable, requiring at times multiple attempts before car can be moved. Having to leave the car in a parking lot is a nuisance. Having to leave the car in the middle of a street is hazardous.

The ID.4 (brand new - 5 days old) shutdown in the middle of a busy street in Altamonte Springs, FL (suburb of Orlando). There was a “Electrical system not working correctly. Please service vehicle" warning so I began to pull off to the left turning lane. Then 12V battery errors started flashing and 5 seconds later the entire car shut down in the middle of the road. I was unable to restart it for 10-15minutes. I was able to drive 300 feet to a parking lot after. Will be taking the ID.4 to the dealership tomorrow morning (9/20/2021) assuming it doesn't shut down during the drive.

While pulling out of a parking garage at low speed, the car shut down/stopped/lost all power. Also, a second event occurred while backing into a charging station, the car shut down/stopped/lost all power.